scope:

Abstract:

Design decisions made early in a program's development can significantly affect the operational efficiency of the delivered vehicle. There seems to have been a lack of appreciation of this fact within the space launch vehicle design community in the past, and specifically from the performance-oriented design disciplines. There is a need to define the operational implications of top-level design choices on operationally driven Figures of Merit (FOM) in the conceptual or Pre-Phase A/Phase A stage of design. At this critical stage, top-level parameters are being traded against each other in order to achieve an initial converged (and possibly optimized) design point. By doing this, it may be possible to incorporate considerations from lessons learned from operational experience into future designs.

Specific Design for Operations approaches for future reusable launch systems are included in the attached paper.